A brother writes in The Press

The Press ran this op ed from John Holm, brother of Dee Jordan who was killed by a driver fleeing the Police:

My big sister and her aerobics partner, Norman Fitt, were killed instantly at 8.10pm on August 26, just 10 minutes after I had travelled through the same set of lights on Fitzgerald Ave, Christchurch.

She did not have time to say goodbye to her frail 87-year-old mum, her soulmate and loyal husband for over four decades, two beautiful daughters, her younger sister, two brothers, relatives and hundreds of friends.

I have never had the need to write to the editor before but I, and other members of our family, am absolutely stressed by correspondents who see it as their right to form an opinion about the police’s role as this tragic event unfolded, without any knowledge of the background, let alone the facts.

The blame the Police lynchmob.

The individual who killed two beautiful people in the prime of their lives had offended against the law previously and been jailed. While under the care of his extended family following his release from jail, he got into an unregistered and unwarranted car while drunk and disqualified. He broke the law on several counts – the worst, killing two people

He drove from Akaroa to Christchurch and was “noticed” shortly after arrival by the police, who within a matter of 400 metres had the driver pulling into the kerbside as requested. When the car was virtually at a standstill, the driver had a “brain explosion”, sped off through three green-light intersections at a speed up to 90-100kmh in a 50kmh zone.

Sadly and fatally the fourth intersection had a red light and he had covered a total distance of only 500m since running the police stop and fleeing the police.

The police had not even passed through the first set of green lights, and the time elapsed was less than a minute, when my sister and the driver of the vehicle she was in were killed.

I can’t see how anyone can blame the Police, rather than the killer, for this.

So who killed my sister?

Bad parenting killed my sister and to a lesser extent the education system, with the latter not equipped with the tools or resources (or time for that matter) to educate this young man when his parents failed.

We have to have social rules and when people fail to abide by those rules as a consequence of bad parenting through their formative years, we have to have laws.

The laws have to have teeth, and be upheld, for without this we have anarchy.

The police are an easy target as they are “dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t”.

To all you police bashers out there, let the police use their best human judgment as they continue to “protect the public”, whilst at the same time society demands and reminds those who bring children into the world that they are equally guilty and should also be held accountable.

The public seem to forget that the police have husbands and wives, family and friends, so give them a break.

These two officers had to watch powerlessly as two people got killed right in front of their eyes. Have any of you been through that trauma?

My guess is no.

Very moving. It must indeed be horrific for the officers concerned.